Television program “Narodnyi Reiting” (People's rating) carried out voting this week about the project “Nine Treasures”, which was announced by the head of Tuva, Sholban Kara-ool, on January 13. the viewers of the channel were asked to make up their list of the main treasures of Tuav. “They suggested the Tuvan language, shamanism, the Center of Asia monument,- said the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Plyus Inform”, Elvira Lifanova, who is also an adviser to the Chairman of the Government, to Tuva Online. – but most of the votes went to khoomei, Tuvan throat singing.”>>>

The Air Force Academy has set aside an outdoor worship area for Pagans, Wiccans, Druids and other Earth-centered believers, school officials said Monday. A double circle of stones atop a hill on the campus near Colorado Springs has been designated for the group, which previously met indoors. "Being with nature and connecting with it is kind of the whole point," said Tech. Sgt. Brandon Longcrier, who sponsors the group and describes himself as a Pagan. "It will dramatically improve that atmosphere, the mindset and the actual connection.">>>

For the La Chi people, forests are both a sacred place to worship their ancestors and a place to heal rifts through open dialogue.It is basic psychology that venting one’s feelings, particularly discontent, disagreement and anger, can have a cathartic effect.This is not easy to do in the modern world, where stress and tension are so much a part of daily life that people have counselors and psychiatrists to help release them.>>>

A VAST new coalmine planned for Sydney's south-western outskirts will damage the city's natural desalination plant - the ''hanging swamps'' that filter pure water down into the Georges River.

More than 50 swamps in the little-known Dharawal State Conservation Area, south-east of Campbelltown, will be undercut by longwall coalmines, which the mine owner, BHP Billiton, admits are likely to crack the bedrock and drain swamps. Aboriginal rock art above the mine site is also at risk.>>>

Mexican archaeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture. Archaeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading. Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around A.D. 820.>>>